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Adobe® Marketing Cloud Success Story
Angie’s List
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Angie’s List optimizes search bidding and lowers the cost per
acquisition by up to 58% with Adobe Media Optimizer for Search
Angie’s List
Indianapolis, Indiana
www.angieslist.com
Results
• Lowered overall cost per acquisition
by 35% while increasing conversion
by 11%
• Decreased the cost per acquisition
for nonbranded keywords by 58%
• Achieved a 25% lift in the conversion
rate
• Automated paid search, enabling
marketers to spend more time
optimizing and developing
campaigns
• Used A/B and multivariate tests to
optimize web pages for increased
conversion
In 1995, Angie Hicks teamed up with Bill Oesterle to offer a new breed of customer
review site, targeting trustworthy professional services. Specializing in local service
providers, such as handymen, mechanics, and healthcare providers, Angie’s List
stands apart from competing online sites by offering trustworthy ratings and reviews
from registered members. The company prohibits anonymous reviews and employs
a highly structured accountability process to help ensure reviews are as fair and
reliable as possible. That means members can feel confident that they are being
guided by the voices of real customers, just like them.
Bolstered by television and print advertising campaigns, Angie’s List has quickly established itself
as one of the most well-known and respected names in recommendations and reviews across the
United States. As part of its unified marketing efforts, the company’s digital marketing team also
works to maintain strong search rankings when customers search for brand keywords such as the
company name. At the same time, Angie’s List competes with other review sites and businesses for
non-brand keywords to capture the attention of potential audiences.
“We know our core referral and review services stand out from the competition, but we also realize that
an effective online search strategy is essential to our success,” says Brett Westerman, manager of search
marketing at Angie’s List. To help boost membership and lower cost per acquisition (CPA), marketers at
Angie’s List looked to improve paid search with best-in-class solutions. Having already achieved success
with the Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target solutions within Adobe Marketing Cloud, Angie’s List
turned to Adobe Media Optimizer for Search.
Using Adobe Media Optimizer for Search, Angie’s List is automating bid optimization
to reduce CPA on thousands of keywords and eliminate the need for staff to manage
campaigns manually.
“We were surprised by the dramatic results with
Adobe Media Optimizer, particularly for nonbranded keywords. We managed to increase
conversions while decreasing the costs of
acquisition by 58%.”
Brett Westerman, manager of search marketing, Angie’s List
Challenge
• Optimizing paid search campaigns
to boost registrations, reduce costs
• Lowering cost per acquisition for
search keywords
• Building capabilities as a datadriven marketing organization
Solution
• Deployed Adobe Media Optimizer
for Search within Adobe Marketing
Cloud to automatically optimize
bidding for search keywords across
the entire portfolio
• Optimized campaigns and landing
pages with integrated testing and
real-time analysis data from Adobe
Analytics and Adobe Target solutions
within Adobe Marketing Cloud
Systems at a glance
Adobe Marketing Cloud, including
Adobe Media Optimizer, Adobe
Analytics, and Adobe Target solutions.
Capabilities used include:
• Adobe Media Optimizer for Search
• Marketing reports and analytics
• Ad hoc analysis
• A/B testing
• Multivariate testing
Lower costs, higher conversions
Using Adobe Media Optimizer for Search, Angie’s List is working closely with Adobe to automatically
optimize bidding on search keywords. The company’s paid search campaign uses tens of thousands
of keywords to help customers connect with the Angie’s List brand. Previously, marketers optimized
their spend through manual keyword bidding—a labor-intensive process that took up much of a
marketer’s time.
By tapping into powerful algorithms in Adobe Media Optimizer for Search, Westerman and the digital
marketing team can automatically analyze both spend and performance to calculate the optimum bid
for keywords in thousands of ad groups. Unlike other search management solutions, Adobe Media
Optimizer for Search optimizes campaigns on a portfolio basis, making thousands of complex
calculations to determine the best way to allocate advertising spend. The result is that Angie’s List can
uncover new opportunities for conversion and distribute limited search dollars as efficiently as possible.
For Angie’s List, the advantages are evident not only in decreased costs and increased conversion,
but also in freeing staff to spend more time on higher-level campaign strategies. For instance, rather
than spending time looking at numbers and changing bids, search marketers can focus more on
driving long-term growth, optimizing campaigns or landing pages, and reaching new customers.
The bid simulation tool is a particularly helpful way for search marketers to look at trends and forecast
future investments.
After optimizing bids for only one month, Angie’s List experienced significant improvements to both
CPA and conversion rates. “Our overall CPA decreased by 35%, while our conversions increased by 11%,”
says Westerman. Angie’s List also successfully shifted the focus of the portfolio to high-value conversion
traffic, including seeing the number of registrations go up with a 25% lift to the conversion rate.
“We were surprised by the dramatic results with Adobe Media Optimizer, particularly for nonbranded
keywords,” adds Westerman. “We managed to increase conversions while decreasing the costs of
acquisition by 58%.” Inspired by the success after optimization, Angie’s List plans to expand on its
nonbranded keyword portfolios by further analyzing which types of keywords perform strongly and
using this information to add new keywords and combinations to its paid search campaign.
Leveraging integrated analysis and testing
Angie’s List enhances its Adobe Media Optimizer for Search implementation by integrating the solution
with Adobe Analytics. Adobe Media Optimizer for Search pulls real-time conversion data directly from
Adobe Analytics to instantly view performance and send back keyword information to enhance analysis.
Adobe Analytics also helps clarify customer journeys through the website, enabling search marketers
to determine where customers are coming from, where they stopped on the site during the signup
process, and what other information they viewed before registering. With a clear view into how
customers engage on the site, marketers can better guide visitors to conversion.
Leveraging the integration between Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions, Angie’s List can use
the real-time performance in Adobe Analytics to enhance bid optimization and support
Adobe Target to test and optimize web pages to maximize conversion.
“By quantifying our marketing campaigns using Adobe
Marketing Cloud, we’re becoming even smarter about
allocating funds and how we’re communicating the
returns to others throughout the company.”
Brett Westerman, manager of search marketing, Angie’s List
Adobe Analytics is also used alongside Adobe Target at Angie’s List to improve ongoing testing on the
site’s many web pages. By testing digital images, written offers, call-to-action buttons, page layout, and
other page elements, Angie’s List can provide customers with the best experience possible.
In particular, by optimizing landing pages, the digital marketing team is seeing that they can further
increase conversion from keyword searches. In addition to A/B tests, Angie’s List is beginning to take
advantage of more complex multivariate testing in Adobe Target, using the tests to sift through
thousands of page content iterations to determine the best combination of on-screen elements.
The integrated Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions are empowering the company’s marketing team to
drive further recognition of the Angie’s List brand and increase registrations. “By quantifying our
marketing campaigns using Adobe Marketing Cloud, we’re becoming even smarter about allocating
funds and how we’re communicating the returns to others throughout the company.”
For more information
www.adobe.com/solutions/
digital-marketing.html
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